Sometimes a video is worth a world of heart felt exchange .. especially when its creator is so humane and so giving. … Words cannot express my appreciation for this kind gesture. Thanks are not enough. But, THANKS, Rachel, I am honored.

Jan 10, 2012 8:29pm

Hi Rick! Here's a message for you from me and the children at GK Eldorado site in Paranaque, Philippines. Thank you for buying the book Inspired By Manila and supporting the Padua Charitable Fund! Rachel : )

Rick Passo‎Rachel, I just love this message!! And, I just love your work and your advocacy!!!!!!! This is just truly priceless! I will cherish it because of what it represents … and because of what a wonderful that you are!

Team, the Yellow Boat Project has been chosen as one of the winners for the Liberal Project! Thank you for your prayers and support. Awarding will be on December 6, 2011. Our blog – http://yellowboa...

I am so very touched by the message regarding the Padua Charitable Fund

Basic Information

Urban poverty is a serious global problem. There are 1 billion people living in slums all over the world. In the Philippines, this problem is paramount and urgent. We can all do our bit and make the Philippines and the world an even more beautiful place to live in by helping eradicate the slums of our cities and rehousing poor deprived families in cleaner, safer, self-reliant and happier communities

Description

The Padua Charitable Fund was founded in July 2007 with the conviction that everyone has the basic right to a decent home, good health and education necessary to ensure the continuity of a safe, sound and happy society!

The Padua Charitable Fund is registered with the Charity Commission of England and Wales and with the Securities and Exchange Commission in the Philippines. We are organized and operated solely by volunteers. We have a Chairperson, a Secretary and a Treasurer, a Board of Trustees and approximately 30 members. Our members are united by their vision, albeit in their own small way, in helping to create a world devoid of poverty, homelessness, disease, ignorance and illiteracy, injustice and inequality.

Home is where the heart is

Our organisation makes financial contributions towards projects that aim to eradicate the slums of the Philippines by replacing these through the voluntary building of decent homes, to include basic and necessary facilities for homeless families as befit all human beings.

General Information

The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 tropical islands, many of them untouched, a geographical phenomenon intricately positioned in the western Pacific ocean in Southeast Asia.

It is a land of many contrasts…..Paradise-like verdant fertile islands, endless miles of stunning white beaches, clear turquoise seas endowed with the world's richest marine and coral life, dazzling hills and mountains, stretches of dense virgin rainforests as well as treacherous volcanoes and periodic typhoons ravaging homes and agricultural life.

A young thriving republic gaining independence in 1898 after nearly 400 years of Spanish colonialisation, the Republic of the Philippines, attracting foreign elements mainly because of its ideal geographical position and wealth in natural resources, further endured many years of colonial rule and subjugation, disrupting the smooth continuity of governance and of growth and life in general.. This, coupled with a fragmented geography resulting in a clannish or regional mentality, led the country to struggle even more in attaining national unity and social-economic progress.

It is also a land of extreme wealth and extreme poverty. With a current population of over 80 million, the Philippines' problems have been exacerbated by the lure of people to the cities where a "slum" culture is quickly established, people finding themselves entrenched in a vicious poverty trap of no decent homes, no employment, inadequate education, no choice or movement in the social scale.

It is indeed ironic that this blessed land of natural bounty and beauty, of smiles and laughter, and of warm, generous, hospitable, hardworking and enduring people, should be unjustly besieged by poverty beyond belief.